Fremy replied, “No, and he hasn’t sent me notice that he’s found a clue, either. Hold on for one more hour.”
“I shall. I can manage that well enough,” said Mora, and sent more power into the barrier. In order to pour all her energy into maintaining the barrier, she was no longer scanning the mountain. She only checked on Tgurneu briefly once every five minutes.
Masses of fiends were crowding near the Saltpeak Barrier from both within and without. They summoned all their effort to attack the barricade. Chamo’s slave-fiends tried to stop the fiends attacking the barrier, but they hadn’t yet recovered completely, so their assaults were sporadic. Tgurneu sat on a rock, protected by its minions as it gazed absentmindedly at the barrier. The fiend did not give any orders or conspire any tricks. To Mora, it looked as if it was waiting for something.
Suddenly, Tgurneu raised a hand, and all the fiends stopped their barrage. “All right. I’ve ascertained its strength now.” The veil of light was still.
What is its plan? she wondered, watching Tgurneu.
Suddenly, it looked up at the mountain, directly at the Bud of Eternity. “Will you reply to me now, Mora? I’ve been calling you and calling you.”
Mora swallowed.
“You can hear my voice, can’t you? I know you have the ability to talk to me. Why won’t you say anything? Are you scared to converse? I swore I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Mora, what is going on?” asked Fremy, beside her.
The Elder’s heart hammered. “I know not. The fiends suddenly stopped attacking the barrier. Don’t speak to me right now. I wish to focus on observing Tgurneu.”
The half fiend observed Mora with sharp eyes. If Mora did anything to make Fremy suspect her, the Saint of Gunpowder would kill her. But still, Mora couldn’t ignore Tgurneu’s call. “What do you want, Tgurneu?” she asked, using her power of mountain echo. She did so without speaking out loud so as to avoid Fremy’s suspicion.
“Finally, a reply. Now then, as I’ve said over and over—you have no time. If you don’t kill one of the Six Braves within the next two days, Shenira is probably going to die.” Mora shivered, goose bumps standing out on her whole body. “Did you perhaps kill one already? Was it Adlet, after all? Or perhaps Rolonia? Those two seem easy to kill. If it was Hans or Chamo, I’d jump for joy. Those are the two I’m really scared of, after all.”
“I’ve killed no one.”
“I thought not.” Tgurneu shrugged. “You really are a cruel mother. I thought a mother’s love was supposed to surpass everything. Do you know just how many opportunities to save her you’ve let get away from you?”
“Be silent. What would a fiend understand? You’re a monster that knows neither love nor justice,” said Mora.
For the first time, a faint swell of anger seeped into Tgurneu’s expression. “I will ignore that discourtesy—I’m a generous fiend.”
“I want to ask you something. What do you mean, I ‘have no time’?”
“Oh, I do wonder what I meant there. Do I really need to be telling you that? What you should know is that you have only two more days. That’s all,” Tgurneu said, and it smiled unpleasantly. “This barrier did surprise me, but your efforts are useless. Your party can’t kill me. I’m going to leave this barrier, and I won’t appear to you again for the following two days. This is your warning. If you want to save your daughter, then hurry up and kill a Brave.”
Mora was speechless.
“If all of you came and attacked me right now,” Tgurneu continued, “then you might be able to defeat me. But you still aren’t ready to pull that off, are you? If you were, you’d come straight for me.”
Then Fremy, standing beside Mora, grew tired of waiting and said, “What’s going on, Mora? Explain.”
“I know not. Nothing has happened, so there’s nothing for me to say.”
“This is getting nowhere. I’m going to go see what’s going on with Tgurneu.” Clenching her gun, Fremy ran off. Chamo followed after her.
Mora did not pursue them, resuming her exchange with Tgurneu instead. “Who is the seventh? Tell me, and I’ll kill one of the Six Braves at once.”
“Are you trying to negotiate with me? I can’t comply.” Tgurneu shook its head. “If you kill Hans Humpty, Chamo Rosso, Fremy Speeddraw, Rolonia Manchetta, Goldof Auora, or Adlet Mayer, then I will release your daughter. Which of them is the seventh has nothing to do with it.”
“So you don’t care if I kill the seventh?” Mora muttered. What was Tgurneu thinking? Using her clairvoyance, Mora checked the situation halfway down the slope. Fremy and Chamo, on their way to see what was going on with Tgurneu, were currently held up by a dozen-odd fiends.
“Come on, Mora,” said Tgurneu, “there’s someone fighting up there. If you go and punch them from behind, your beloved daughter will be saved. Don’t you love her?”
“Why?! Why is it only two more days?! The deadline was supposed to be twenty-two days after the Evil God’s awakening!” Mora burst out. It was a good thing Fremy had left. At her outburst, the fiend pressed a hand over its mouth and exploded into laughter.
“What’s so funny?!”
“Oh, pardon me. I was just remembering something amusing. When I remember how you were three years ago, I just can’t stop laughing.” Tgurneu’s mouth warped into an uncanny sneer. Up until now, no matter how uncanny the creature had looked, there had also been something humanlike about it.
